What a blissful sight to behold. I don’t know why, but I am always filled with so much joy whenever I’m fortunate enough to see a tawny owl in the wild.

This park in Central London used to host a well-known pair of tawny owls, until one year a strong storm collapsed their nesting tree and they disappeared. For several years since then, nobody knew what happened to the pair although in the intervening years there were some sporadic reports of tawny owl hooting heard in the park. But none was spotted or located until now.

This rather handsome male tawny, recently found, is single, hoots like a clockwork at dusk, and after his nightly singing duties takes off to start hunting for food.

As some readers may know already, tawnies are early breeders - they typically breed by mid-March. They are also known to bond for life although there are some exceptions to this rule. Therefore this fella seems still out of luck in the love department, as he is never seen with another owl as I write this in April 2022.

As I became older I find myself being nosey in other people’s business and this owl’s probability of finding love proves to be of no exception. According to some websites dedicated to owl research, they indicate a typical tawny’s territory of 12 - 20 ha (per pair or per individual, unspecified). Given this park’s rough size, it can be estimated that there are from 12 to 20 individuals or pairs of tawny owls there. Hopefully sufficient number of them are still single and looking, just like this fella. But so far, I haven’t heard his beautiful singing tune ever met with a return call from a female yet.

Owl’s hooting is sometimes described as harrowing, ominous, and never really associated with anything positive. For me though, it carries some special attractiveness. Especially in the urban jungle in which we live, what little green space we still have left is disjointed by roads, buildings, and railways, and dominated by humans during daytime as if they own it completely.

But once the sun sets and the last orange hue from the setting sun becomes a sliver of light covering just above the horizon, tawnies, normally having to remain quiet and camouflaged so as not to be spotted and mobbed by other birds, come onto the main stage and hoot as if they declare their nocturnal reign.

Everyone has their moment - even an elusive tawny in our urban park. I like that very much.

Please join me in enjoying his stage performance I recorded recently.